From Christ to the Cat Box

This morning, I was lamenting all the things that impinge on my being with God—responsibilities related to family or church, people that need ministry, home or auto maintenance, and 1,000 other things right down to my cat who, when I have a second of time to myself, walks up and emits whining cries until I pet her. I told God, “I’m just not satisfied with our relationship.” In response, God simply said, “I am.” In that moment, I realized when I spoke of my relationship with God, I was referring to experiences of Him during prayer, Bible reading, worship, etc. But God isn’t relating to me in those things at all. He is relating to me in Christ and is unchangeably satisfied with our relationship in His Son. My experiences are merely manifestations of our relationship, signs pointing to something more real.

God forgive me—and the whole lot of us called by your name—for relating to you in a way which centers on the self and its experiences in time. Establish me in your view of our relationship, to live in the Spirit by faith instead of living by my experiences in the world. Anyway, Lord, I gotta go. My wife just asked me to clean the cat box.